Putter anchoring is hard to determine

Unless you're standing close by or the culprit admits to it, calling out a fellow golfer for anchoring the putter, or any club, is nearly impossible

Jul 18, 2023

The rules official from the Carolinas Golf Association staff was quick to respond to a inquiry about anchoring the putter by an opponent in a recent CGA Senior Interclub match. It wasn’t the answer I was seeking, but it helped in constructing today’s post about anchoring.

“Anchoring is a tough rule to enforce, honestly,” the rules official explained in an email response to an email in which I questioned the putting method used by the opponent.

My team partner and I in the modified four-ball competition watched as the friendly foe tightly nestled his forearm and gripping hand against his body, stroking his putt toward the hole, sometimes in and sometimes missing. It was after the first hole of the match that I voiced my concern for rule-breaking to my partner, not to the opponent.

On the way to the second hole tee, riding with my partner, I questioned aloud in a low tone about what appeared to be “anchoring” by the competitor. “We challenged that in our match at his club last week,” my partner said. “He was quick to say what he does isn’t anchoring so we dropped it. We didn’t want to get in an argument about it.”

In the return match at Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh, to keep the match cordial and fun (which is how Interclub matches are supposed to be; no fisticuffs, please), we decided not to challenge him, just let it go. But it was a concern for me the rest of the way.

For the remaining 17 holes, I watched with somewhat amazement during each of his tries, as he pressed his forearm tightly against his chest area and his gripping left hand doing the same. It was an anchor-point, no doubt.

For the day, our modified four-ball match (every hole worth a point; team with most points after 18 holes wins the match) ended in a tie, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what appeared to be anchoring. So, I sent an email with a description of what I saw for 18 holes to the rules official asking for an explanation. He responded:

“Unless you are close enough to physically see and know they are holding the club or gripping hand/forearm against their body for the stroke, there really aren’t many concrete facts to add penalty strokes,” the CGA rules official wrote in a response. “We have to know if they violate the rule or if they admit to it.
“I see a lot of putting strokes that look close, but unless I am standing right beside them when they make the stroke, or they say ‘yes I was anchoring’ when I ask them, it is difficult to confidently say a violation occurred. Other than asking them or standing on the green with them when they putt, I wouldn't be confident saying he is or is not anchoring.”

From my vantage point, very close to the player when he readied his putting effort, I believe he was anchoring, pressing his forearm hard against his chest with the top of the putter shaft firmly grasped by his left hand with his thumb covering the tip and the lower joint of his thumb pressing on his chest. His putting stroke resembled a fulcrum, “an anatomical structure that acts as a hinge or a point of support.” He was anchoring the club against his body.

USGA Rule 10.1b—keep reading for the actual text—allows for the forearm and top hand to brush the player’s clothing or to make a stroke hard against the chest but not hold it tight when taking the putter back and forward, through the putt.

Two professional players using a long putter and who started thus when anchoring was legal are Bernard Langer and Adam Scott. Many observers believe Langer, next month to be 66-years-old and still beating the pants off the young bucks (50+) on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, is anchoring his putter but no one calls him out on it. His forearm and left-hand grip are very close to his chest, possibly an infraction.

In 2016, when the rule was made (USGA Rule 14-1b back then later changed to Rule 10.1b), Tim Rosaforte wrote an article for Golf Digest about Langer’s stroke: Bernard Langer’s new putting stroke has people talking. Follow up articles in other publications point out the USGA, PGA, and R&A give Langer the benefit of the doubt sighting accidental contact, or something like that. To the victor go the spoils, you might say.

Scott on the other hand appears to follow the rule with his forearm and top-gripping hand adequately, if not more so, away from his body. There’s no doubt when it comes to not anchoring by Scott. Here is the rule:

USGA Rule 10.1b Anchoring the Club

In making a stroke, the player must not anchor the club, either:

Directly, by holding the club or a gripping hand against any part of the body (except that the player may hold the club or a gripping hand against a hand or forearm), or
Indirectly, through use of an “anchor point,” by holding a forearm against any part of the body to use a gripping hand as a stable point around which the other hand may swing the club.

If the player’s club, gripping hand or forearm merely touches their body or clothing during the stroke, without being held against the body, there is no breach of this Rule.

For the purposes of this Rule, “forearm” means the part of the arm below the elbow joint and includes the wrist.

With every rule in the USGA book, there is an interpretation, a more complete explanation. From the interpretations, here is rule 10.1b explained:

USGA Rule 10.1b/1 – Player Must Not Anchor the Club with Forearm Against Body

Holding a forearm against the body during a stroke is an indirect means of anchoring the club.

For an “anchor point” to exist, two things must happen: (1) the player must hold a forearm against the body; and (2) the player must grip the club so that the hands are separated and work independently from each other.

For example, in making a stroke with a long putter, the player’s forearm is held against their body to establish a stable point, while the bottom hand is held down the shaft to swing the lower portion of the club.

However, a player is allowed to hold one or both forearms against their body in making a stroke, so long as doing so does not create an anchor point.

The last paragraph in the interpretations is referring primarily to what is commonly known as a standard putting stance and stroke, holding your forearms against your body but without the tip anchoring the stroke.

Golf is an interesting game in that it is incumbent on the players to call penalties on themselves. Opponents and partners may question a situation such as grounding a club in a sand bunker or intentionally improving a lie out of a divot in the fairway when “playing it down” is the rule of the day or determining where a ball last crossed a red line defining a penalty area.

Most rules infractions in medal (stroke) play result in a one or two shot penalty added to the score for that hole. In match play, loss of hole is the penalty. However, in four-ball competition where the two-person team’s lowest score is used to determine the winner and loser of the hole, when one player is penalized (disqualified for the hole) in match play, the partner is not disqualified and can still win or lose the hole.

That would have been the case in our Senior Interclub match. The opponent who, as far I could determine, was anchoring his putter, won several holes, scoring lower than his partner. If anchoring had been determined and/or if he would have admitted it, my partner and I would have won our match instead of tying, and the team from Lonnie Poole Golf Course would have won the overall match instead of tying.

On the other hand, using the standard putting set-up and stroke, on the last hole of the match, I missed a putt of just over two feet long that gave the opponents our four-ball match and caused the overall team match to tie.

Damn! Maybe I should consider a long putter. Anchors away!

JIM TALK!

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